GREATER NOIDA: A day after a video showing a dalit family, allegedly stripped by a cop in Dankaur for complaining against "police inaction", went viral, protests flared on Friday as other people joined relatives of the family to demand justice.

While the state government reacted by sending an SC/ST commission team to Dankaur, which began an inquiry and will file a report, the protesters handed over a memorandum to Gautam Budh Nagar Nagar district magistrate N P Singh with copies attached for Union home minister Rajnath Singh, Uttar Pradesh's director general of police, the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, the president of the National Commission for Women and the chairperson of the SC/ST commission.

According to the memorandum, five people, including three women, were arrested on Wednesday on charges of public obscenity, rioting, robbery and attempt to murder after they protested against the police's alleged refusal to register a complaint of robbery.

The five belong to the same family - the complainant, his wife, brother and sisters-in-law - who alleged the SHO of Dankaur police station had thrashed the men and torn the clothes of the women when he saw them protesting. The complainant, a resident of Atta Gujran village, had alleged the police refused to file a case after he was robbed of his bike and Rs 1,000 by three men, who also made casteist remarks. The family then protested near a market when the SHO came by.

The SHO had dismissed the allegations against him when a TOI reporter spoke to him on Thursday. "They themselves tore their clothes and created a ruckus on the road," the SHO had said. On Friday, police reiterated this, saying an FIR had been lodged on the family's complaint, and that there was a history of rivalry between the complainant and the people he had accused.

When TOI visited the family's home in Atta Gujran, barely 50 km from the national capital, only a teenaged girl was in the house. "My parents and uncle and aunts have all been arrested by the police," she cried. Narrating the incident, which she said she had witnessed on Wednesday, the girl said police had behaved brutally with her family, rained blows on them and tore their clothes. There were no lady cop there, the girl said. "The police have also sent to jail my cousins aged two and a half months, two and a half years and one and a half years," she added.

Senior superintendent of police Kiran S said an inquiry is being conducted by the DSP, Greater Noida. "Prima facie, after viewing the videos, it appears the accused disrobed the others. The witnesses present at the incident also corroborate the same," Kiran S said. "However, a detailed investigation will be carried out by my officer and required action will follow," he added.

Please do read related news:

The Hindustan Times

Land dispute, police 'inaction' for six years forced Greater Noida family to strip

DEHRADUN: Agitating Dalits sitting in protest in Dehradun after being denied entry into the temple at Gabela village, have threatened that unless their demands were met, they will convert to another religion by Saturday evening. While the district authorities maintained that no one has been stopped from offering prayers in the temple, the group claims that after the humiliation it should be taken to the temple under police security and allowed to offer prayers with due respect.

Meanwhile, the district administration has announced that people of all communities, including Dalits, will be allowed to enter Kukarshi temple at Gabela.

Led by Daulat Kunwar, the group of Dalits held a protest at Dharna Sthal at Parade Ground on Friday. "My wife and daughter were abused and beaten. It is not possible for us to go to the temple without security as our lives are under threat from the locals," Kunwar told TOI.

"We have given the district administration time till 5pmon Saturday, and if our demands are not met we will hold a press meet to announce which religion we are converting to. Our discussions on the issue are under way," said Kunwar.

On October 5, Kunwar under the aegis of his organisation Aaradhna Gramin Vikas Kendra, took out a 10-day Jaunsar Bawar Parivartan Yatra for the "welfare of Dalits." The yatra in which some meeting with the Dalits and visit to a few temples had been planned, was to pass through some villages of the area.

After being denied a chance to hold a meeting in Quansi area on October 5, the yatra arrived at Gabela village. However, the group was prevented from entering the temple by a group of people who claimed that they were under the control of the spirit of the village god. Kunwar and his team sat on protest and were allegedly forcefully removed from the village late on Wednesday night.

District magistrate Ravinath Raman announced that the village pradhan, priests and members of the temple committee conveyed to him in writing that they welcome people of all communities into the temple. "There has never been any problem with anyone entering the temple from any religion or community, including Dalits. Now an official communique has been released to further endorse this fact and allay misgivings created by Daulat Kunwar's group," Raman alleged. "However there are age-old practices with regard to entering the temple and prayer before the deity, which applies to all. These practices have been unduly misrepresented in this entire controversy."

The Hindu

Video of Dalit family allegedly stripped by police creates storm on social media

A video of a Dalit man and his wife allegedly stripped by the police in Greater Noida in Gautam Buddh Nagar has created a storm on social media. The authorities are yet to act on it.

Sunil Gautam and his wife were reportedly stripped naked publicly by the local police after they insisted on filing a police complaint. The Dankaur police had allegedly refused to file their complaint. The couple were later arrested and jailed by the police.

Other versions of the video shows the couple stripping themselves apparently as a mark of protest after the police refused to file their complaint.

The local police have termed Gautam a habitual "blackmailer." He "misuses the provisions of SC/ST Atrocities act to blackmail people and settle personal scores," a senior police officer told The Hindu.

"We received several complaints against Sunil Gautam by Dankaur's business community that he has been blackmailing them for a long time," a senior Greater Noida official said.

The Twitter handle of Government of Uttar Pradesh clarified and accused the dalit victims of orchestrating the incident.

"Noida police is in possession of the video of the alleged stripping; it is clearly seen the accused disrobes/others," the State government's Twitter handle said, quoting the Superintendent of Police of Noida.

"The witnesses present at the incident also corroborate the same; the video is circulated to undermine the efforts of the police," it further added.

JODHPUR: Dozens of Dalit children from a government school in Rajasthan's Berdo Ka Baas village say they are now too scared to go to school.

Their classmate, 12-year-old Dinesh Meghwal, was beaten up last week by a teacher allegedly for touching a non-Dalit's food plate.

"I touched their plate by mistake so they beat me up. They beat me very badly," Dinesh Meghwal said.

The students from the Meghwal community say they are now being threatened by the upper caste Jats in their village - the community to which teacher belongs.

The teacher Hema Ram Jat, who was arrested after the incident last Friday, is now out on bail.

Calling for action over the incident, around 50 Dalit children from the senior secondary school from the village sat in protest outside the collector's office in Jodhpur with a memorandum.

They say discrimination is rampant in their village school where upper caste Jats are in majority. "They treat us very badly. Our plates are kept separately and that is also the reason our friend was beaten," said a classmate of Dinesh.

Dinesh's father Malaram said that after his son was beaten up, he went to the school to protest, but he too was beaten by the school teacher.

"There is pressure now on the students and the parents. The Dalit children are not going to the school. This is a matter of concern," Kishan Meghwal, a Dalit activist from the area, said.

The education department has asked for a report into the case. The police have registered a first information report and said they are investigating the matter.

"Strict action would be taken. There is no question that caste-based discrimination will be allowed," Jodhpur Superintendent of Police Pradeep Mohan Sharma said.

Rajasthan has the fifth highest number of crimes against Dalits in the country according to the National Crime Records Bureau. There has been an increase of 22 per cent in the number of crimes like these registered under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Act in the last one year.

Tension prevailed here on Friday after Dalits at Aadhagapatty in Pennagaram blocked a road carrying a body demanding pathway to a graveyard.The residents of Scheduled Castes colony that houses over 100 households took to the street carrying the corpse of a man, who died on Thursday. The local residents have been burying the dead on a piece of poramboke land. The Scheduled Castes have long been demanding that an exclusive graveyard be provided for them. Revenue officials held talks with the protesters. They promised to lay a pathway immediately, and another site for a graveyard too.

Members of the district unit of Tamil Nadu Untouchability Eradiation Front (TNUEF) staged a demonstration, demanding separate law to curb 'honour killing' in the State and courted arrest after they attempted to take out a walkathon.

Police arrested TNUEF members, including its district secretary N. Kalaiarasan and State committee member S Balasubramanian, when they attempted to take out a walkathon violating the police orders here on Friday.

Tempers ran high when police prevented Mr Kalaiarasan from talking to the television media, while being arrested and a section of television journalists staging a protest against the police.

Assistant Superintendent of Police S Sarvesh Raj, who was presented at the spot, intervened and resolved the issue. Superintendent of Police N. M. Mylvahanan promised to look into the issue when journalists brought it to his notice.

Prohibitory orders

Those arrested were detained at a marriage hall and released in the evening. They were prevented from taking out the walkathon as prohibitory order under section 144 of Cr PC was in vogue in the district, police pointed out.

Addressing the agitation, Mr Kalaiarasan said the State had witnessed as many as 72 'honour killings' as people were averse to inter-caste marriage, especially when dalits were involved in the marriages. The killings went unabated in the absence of a separate stringent law to deal with the offenders, he said.

At least five such murders have taken place in the district in the past few years, he claimed.

Worried over poor conviction in atrocity cases, National Commission for Scheduled Castes member P.M. Kamalamma on Friday exhorted the district administration to double up efforts to ensure early disposal of the cases.

Reviewing the cases and relief provided under SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act, she said the NCSC would hold a special review meeting in Vijayawada in the second week of November to render justice to the victims of atrocities.

She asked revenue and police officials to work "wholeheartedly" to improve the conviction rate and ensure justice to the downtrodden sections of people.

It was submitted by District Revenue Officer Noor Basha Qasim that no case ended in conviction in the last four years when as many as 598 atrocity cases were registered.

Only three cases ended in conviction in the previous three years when 436 SC/ST cases were reported. Much to her chagrin, 441 cases were closed as "false cases". As many as 137 cases were pending trial in different courts in the district with a maximum of 46 cases in 2014, followed by 42 cases in 2013 and 16 in 2015, 11 cases in 2012, 10 cases in 2011, 4 cases in 2009, 2 in 2007 and one case each in 1996, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2010.

Superintendent of Police Ch. Srikanth explained that the victims inability to provide evidence was responsible for a large number of cases getting closed as "false cases".

In many cases it was difficult to prove that a person had abused the victims by his/her caste name for want of witnesses. Most of the complaints related to land disputes, she told reporters later. She wanted the district administration to be liberal in providing general funds for improvement of the lot of SCs and STs, while strictly spending the allocation under SC/ST sub-plans only for them.

MUMBAI: The man who raised a demand for an Ambedkar memorial at Indu Mill and whose dogged efforts led to its fruition, has, ironically, not been invited for the bhoomipoojan.

On Sunday, bhoomipujan has been planned by the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Indu Mill compound, will be attended by chief minister Devendra Fadnavis, union minister Nitin Gadkari and other dignitaries.

Chandrakant Bhandare (62) a retired government employee, who wrote a letter to then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, then textile minister Syed Shahnawaj Hussain, then Lok Sabha speaker Manohar Joshi and other 250 dignitaries includes politicians and bureaucrats on September 5, 2003.

In a letter he made a demand that the memorial of Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar should be built on the plot of The India United (Indu) Mills situated at Dadar (W). Taking cognizance of his letter in 17 days, Ministry of union Law and Justice wrote to the Maharashtra chief secretary saying that the matter is pertaining to the state government. 'It is requested that an appropriate necessary action may please be taken up at your end at the earliest,' stated a letter. Also a copy of letter sent to Bhandare. Since then, Bhandare has kept all the correspondence he has made about Indu mill with him.

"It was me who made a first demand and followed the matter without tiring but feels get ignored. I am not expecting anything from the government but at least my efforts should have got acknowledged. I haven't received an invitation yet. I just want memorial to be built as soon as possible, that's it," Bhandare told TOI.

"In 2005, an IAS official (currently retired) told me to approach a political leader who can pick up the issue and government should notice and promptly act on it. So I approached a NCP leader to raise the issue," said Bhandare.

Explaining how he thought of demanding Indu Mill for Ambedkar memorial, a follower of Dr Ambedkar, Bhandare said "I saw a news in Marathi newspaper about World Trade Center's (WTC) new building coming up on Indu Mill plot. It hurts me as WTC building was already exist in Colaba. So I thought of demanding it for memorial of Dr Ambedkar."

Few days later after post a letter, Bhandare started receiving support from various fraction of politicians. RPI leader Rajendra Gawai, then MP of Samajwadi Party Abu Azmi, then BMC Gunvant Seth and others expressed their support for the cause.

In May 2006, Bhandare in his reply to then textile minister Shankarshinh Vaghela asked for a bank account number to deposit the cost of the Indu Mill land, as the textile minister denied the proposal of memorial saying that NTC was a sick company and revival scheme of NTC involves the cost of Rs 3,987 crore.

"This reply almost put me in trouble but nothing happened. I came to know that my office was waiting for CBI report to clear my retirement papers," said Bhandare.

Bhandare however looks happy that his dedication works and feels that his dreams would come true soon.

The Supreme Court on Friday castigated K N Satheesh, the executive officer (EO) for Kerala's Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, for making "wild" allegations against the Travancore royal family.

A bench of Justices T S Thakur and Anil R Dave told Satheesh, a senior IAS officer, not to get "carried away by ideologies, revolutionaries and politics" while acting as the temple's executive officer.

'Wild allegations'

Senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for the royal family members, pointed out K N Satheesh's "wild" allegations in an affidavit to the court.

K K Venugopal said the executiive officer (EO) questioned the half-hour slot given to the royal family every morning to exclusively enter the temple to offer prayers.

Counsel complained that the officer had described practice, allowed by the Supreme Court , as "reminiscent of the social evil of untouchability of the past era".

After reprimanding K N Satheesh for making these allegations, the Supreme Court asked him to withdraw his affidavit.

The court also directed him to file a fresh afadavit.

Direction of the court

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court directed former comptroller and auditor general Vinod Rai to complete the audit of the trust for the period between 2004 and 2014.

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THE HIMALAYAN TALK: PALASH BISWAS CRITICAL OF BAMCEF LEADERSHIP

http://youtu.be/k4Bglx_39vY
[Palash Biswas, one of the BAMCEF leaders and editors for Indian Express spoke to us from Kolkata today and criticized BAMCEF leadership in New Delhi, which according to him, is messing up with Nepalese indigenous peoples also.
He also flayed MP Jay Narayan Prasad Nishad, who recently offered a Puja in his New Delhi home for Narendra Modi's victory in 2014.]